As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses continually seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users of information is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary with regard to the kind of information that is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use, including such uses as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems may be included as elements of a storage network. A storage network can be considered as a specialized network of storage devices coupled to one or more data servers. A storage enclosure is an element of a storage network. A storage enclosure is a self-contained physical enclosure that includes within the enclosure a number of storage elements or storage drives. Storage drives typically comprise disk-based hard storage drives. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is a storage network interface and communications protocol for storage transactions. Serial Attached SCSI is characterized by storage networks having a serial, point-to-point architecture and improved data integrity, as compared with parallel SCSI storage networks.
In present storage networks, each SAS storage drive port is assigned an identifier. This identifier is unique to and permanently assigned to the storage drive's port. The storage drive's port identifier is associated with the storage drive and is not assigned with reference to the storage slot of the storage drive or the storage enclosure that houses the storage drive. Similarly, the storage drive's identifier does not include an indication of the storage location of the storage drive, including any indication of the storage enclosure that includes the storage drive or the enclosure interface controller or controllers that are coupled to the storage drive. Because of the complex topology of SAS storage networks, considerable difficulty exists in identifying the specific SAS storage drives that are controlled by an enclosure interface controller or physically located within a storage enclosure of the storage network.